Chengdu to Kangding: Ultimate Guide on How to Get to Kangding from Chengdu

For most people traveling to Kangding area for hiking, tourism, and tours of Tibetan villages and monasteries, the typical starting point is from Chengdu. With a major international airport, Chengdu is a favorite of tourists traveling to China, and has many attractions, from giant pandas to sacred Buddhist and Taoist sites.

Most people are traveling to Kangding area.

Where is Chengdu

One of the three most populous cities in Western China, Chengdu is a sub-provincial city that serves as the capital of Sichuan Province. Known as both the “Country of Heaven” and the “Land of Abundance”, Chengdu is unique in that it has maintained its name almost completely throughout the imperial, republican, and communist eras of Chinese history. The city remains one of the most important economic, financial, commercial, cultural, transportation, and communication centers in Western China.

Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport

The Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport is one of the 30 busiest airports in the world, and the railway station is one of the six biggest in China. Located roughly central within Sichuan Province, Chengdu is a city of over ten million inhabitants, and has been a city since the early 4th century BC. Chengdu is one of the major gateway cities to Tibet, and to Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, to the west of the city.

Where is Kangding

340 kilometers to the west of Chengdu by road lies the city of Kangding, the main gateway to the ecotourism areas around Mount Gongga, Mugetso Nature Park, Hailuogou Glacier Park, Yala Snow Mountain, and the Tagong Grassland, in Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Known as Dartsedo in Tibetan, Kangding is home to around 100,000 inhabitants, and is the capital of Garze, in western Sichuan Province.

The Map of Chengdu to Kangding Airport

To the west of the city lay the lands of the Tibetan civilization, while to the east the lay the Han cultural areas. The former capital of the ancient Chakla Kingdom, Kangding was also an important city for the trading of Chinese brick tea between China and Tibet, where it would be traded for Tibetan wool.

11 Days Minya Konka (Mount Gongga) Pilgrimage Trekking Tour

Situated in a valley of the Tibetan Plateau, Kangding is populated by a mix of Tibetans and Han Chinese. With an elevation of 2,560 meters, it is a good waypoint for travelers to the high plateau of Tibet, and an ideal stop for acclimatization on the way. Around thirty-eight kilometers to the northwest lies the modern Kangding Airport, which, at 4,280 meters above sea level, is the third highest airport in the world, and a major hub for tourism to the area.

Chengdu to Kangding by Flight

It is relatively easy by flight from Chengdu to Kangding, and the average direct flight time is just one hour. There are eleven flights each week from Chengdu to Kangding, which are run by Sichuan Airlines, Lucky Air, and China Eastern Airlines. However, there is no flight into Kangding from Chengdu on Thursdays, and only one flight on a Tuesday.

Flight from Chengdu to Kangding

There are also several indirect flights from Chengdu to Kangding, which go through Chongqing, Daocheng County, and Changsha. Flights can only be run from March to November, however, as the snow and ice is too heavy in winter for landing at Kangding Airport. Travel time from the airport to Kangding City is around 1.5 hours, and it is also well located for tourists going to Minya Konka, Tagong, and other tourist spots. The cost of a flight averages around 1,500CNY, plus taxes, and depends on direct or indirect routes.

Chengdu to Kangding by Bus

Getting to Kangding by bus from Chengdu takes around 7-8 hours, depending on the bus type and the weather conditions. Around 17 buses leave Chengdu bus stations every day, starting from Chengdu Chengbei Bus Station, Chengdu Xinnanmen Bus Station, Chengdu Chadianzi Bus Station, and Chengdu Shiyangchang Bus Station.

Chengdu Chadianzi Bus Station

Tickets are available up to five days prior to departure, and can be booked through the ticket offices of the bus stations in Chengdu, although on holidays and festivals ticket sales open ten days before the date of travel. Aside from the Bus Stations themselves, tickets can also be booked and bought at the East Railway Station, Tonghuimen, Yingbin Avenue, and the ground floor of the Dragon Pool temple.

The main bus terminal in Kangding is at the eastern side of the city, on Qingge Avenue, about a ten-minute walk from the city center, or a couple of minutes by taxi. Taxi fares to the bus station are around 5CNY.

Driving Route from Chengdu to Kangding (G318 to Tibet)

Chengdu to Ya’an

The main route from Chengdu to Kangding follows the G318 National Road that eventually goes all the way to Tibet, part of which is the Sino-Nepal Friendship Highway. The portion of the G318 from Chengdu to Kangding forms part of the southern route of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, which is a very challenging drive of over 2,000 kilometers to Lhasa.

Ya'an

The drive along the G318 is fairly smooth, as it is a good tarmac road leading out from a major city. From the city center, you use the G4201 ring road, turning onto the G93 and G5 to get to Ya’an. This first section of the route is mostly expressway-style road, with little to see along the way as you speed through the outlying areas of metropolitan Chengdu. When the houses and factories subside along the side of the highway, it is mostly fields and farmland, although a few small mountains do poke their peaks above the plain.

Ya’an is a prefecture-level city 136 kilometers west of Chengdu, and is located just below the edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The city dates back to the Zhou Dynasty, and is around 3,000 years old. It was the place where the first ever giant panda was found, and one of the main attractions is the Bifengxia Panda Base, which features an ecotourism recreational resort, a Nuwa culture zone, and the world-famous China Giant Panda research Center. It is also believed to be the place where tea originated in China, more than 1,00 years ago.

Ya’an to Luding

The next stretch of the journey starts to get a little higher, as the road heads up into the lower foothills that line the edge of the Tibetan Plateau. From Ya’an the road to take is now the G318 National Road, and as the elevation increases, so does the beauty of the scenery. The road winds along shallow river valleys and over small mountain ridges as is snakes west in a northerly loop.

As the mountains get higher, the road gets snakier, winding back on itself several times as it makes its way up and down the mountainsides. A short way after the village of Longdanxi, the road enters the Erlangshan Tunnel, which burrows its way through the Erlang Mountain, at the junction of Ya’an City and Garze Prefecture. The tunnel is 4,176 meters long, and the entrance sits at an altitude of 2,200 meters. As the road exits the tunnel and through the toll gate, it resumes its snaking trail, this time down into the wide Dadu River Gorge before climbing again to Xiaobanchang.

Luding

Before the building of the expensive tunnel through Erlang Mountain, the road to Luding snaked up to the famous, Erlangshan Pass, which was renowned for its steep climb and blind corners, and was prone to many landslides that took away parts of the road. At 3,437 meters above sea level, this dangerous and treacherous massif cut off Ya’an from Luding completely in winter months.

Following the Dadu River, the road snakes north along mountain ridges to the famous town of Luding. The site of a huge battle in 1935 between soldiers of the 4th regiment of the army of Workers and peasants and the Chinese Red Army, Luding has a bridge across the Dadu River that dates back to the period of the Kangxi reign, and is made from thirteen iron chains covered with wooden boards. The bridge was an essential crossing point of the Dadu River, and a strategic military link for the Red Army, who had orders to take it intact. This small town is a nice place to stop for a break and something to eat, before tackling the final stretch of the G318 to Kangding.

Luding to Kangding

For the final 55km stretch of the trip, the road follows the Dadu River north as it climbs higher in to the Daxue Shan, or “Great Snow Mountains”, as it loops west again and into the old caravan center of Kangding. The views along this final part of the route are spectacular, and there are several great spots along the way which provide a great view of Gonggashan in the distance, its high peak covered in snow. The mountain dominates the landscape for dozens of kilometers in all directions, and can be seen from Kangding well on a clear day. A great place to visit, Mount Gongga, or Minya Konka as it is known in Tibetan, towers a massive 7,556 meters (24,790 feet) above the valley where Kangding lies.

The beautiful view of Kangding